Objekt 8
Pneumatic lighter (Tachypyrion)
Description
A piston is pushed back and forth in a metal cylinder. The resulting frictional heat ignites the tinder attached to the lower end of the piston. Based on this principle, Joseph Mollet (1756-1829), a physicist in Paris and Lyon, developed this lighter in 1803 and marketed it from 1806 under the name Tachypyrion.
Object description
probably France, around 1800
Brass, iron
Purchase around 1815 by Prof. Daniel Wolleb
Deposit Institute of Physics of the University of Basel, Phys. 30
Inv. 1986.406.